VN - Ren'Py - Ripples [v0.8.0 Public] [Jestur]

There is something so inherently satisfying with a project where you can feel the developer really cares about it and puts hours and hours into making it the best experience they can. Jestur absolutely nailed it with this game.

This game has an engaging story, good and fun character writing with some mystery sprinkled in. It's a very interesting storyline that reminds me a lot of the Netflix series "Dark", from which it seems it has taken some inspiration.

The animations are gorgeous. You play through the early episodes and you think its pretty good there but the developer keeps giving us better and better animations with each episode. I absolutely love when developers achieve something they are content with, but still keep working on polishing it and making it better and better, and this is an aspect where Jestur really delivers.

Been following this game for a while now and just wanted to share my opinion on it and give a huge thanks to the developer for creating one of the best porn game experiences I have ever had. It is really up there with the best.

Well, look at that. There's porn games out there that dare to be a tiny bit different.

To be clear, this still follows standard conventions, one guy, a million girls that all want him etc. Nothing new there.

What does set 'Ripples' apart is decent writing and women that are actually more than just a vehicle for the MC to stick his dick somewhere. They are actually assertive and have their own agenda (I can't believe this needs to be mentioned as a plus still)! Some of the love interests aren't even virgins. Imagine that.

Also the MC is more than a monkey with a dick, switching between horny and 'asshole' as he bumbles through the story.

Now, let's add competent writing, great models and a decent Sci-Fi story and you have a really decent game. That's where we are here.

Go and play it. It isn't revolutionary, but it's miles better than the usual incel harem trash you find here.

Edit: Extra points for the weirdest sex scene ever in Ch6. That scene... I was literally speechless... I have to try this if I find someone adventurous enough to risk breaking their genitals.

Just realized I never reviewed this. This is for version 0.6 with the multi-mod.

Easily one of the best games on this site. Excellence across the board - dialog, story, world building, character models and animation. I love the variation in the girls - from super petite Darci to the stacked milfs. I also love that some of the scenes get a little rough and degrading - more of that would be great.

Review for v0.6.0

Ripples. Having now just completed my lengthy playthrough of current content, I have a lot of conflicting thoughts and feelings about the game running through my mind. Objectively I do think Ripples is good, but ONLY good. Not amazing, incredible, best game ever etc etc. But it would feel disingenuous to rate it "average" at the same time, because this is not your average AVN. Going to try and break everything down here.

I'd say this game is currently about 25% plot focused, and the remaining 75% is a small town slice-of-life fuckfest. Now I use "fuckfest" a bit loosely here. For me, this is usually a negative term that often equates to games having brain dead shallow love interests and near unserviceable writing with sex scenes thrown at you left and right. That is not really true of Ripples. Instead the game takes what I guess you could say would be your average fuckfest and elevates it many levels higher. Characters do have personality, there is a plot at work, and there's a really high level of general quality to this game.

Here is my first real problem though. While it is true characters have some personality to them, almost every single one (besides two) basically feel like side girls. Why is that? I'd say it's because the game doesn't explore their characters enough.

There are two girls in the game that stand above all the rest: Skylar and Darci. Lets ignore personal preference for a second, because I do mean this objectively. Both of them actually have a lot of events and moments that delve into their characters that feel more than just a segway to another sex scene. By comparison, almost every single scene of our mom for example act as simple ways to progressively unleash her repressed desires toward the MC. Essentiality a cliché in AVNs you've seen many times before. She is not even close to the only character that sufferers from this. Episode 6, many hours in, is where we finally see the first real event focused on the sister of all people.

I think it's a result of too many cooks in the kitchen so to speak. Since this isn't a sandbox, it has to worry about balancing everyone's screen time and also leaving room for plot. This has lead to a lot of characters that peak my interest, but don't end up going beyond what feels like fuckbuddies so far. Again, even our mom and sister feel like those imo.

The plot itself. Honestly I've never cared much for time travel. But funnily enough one of my favorite games on the site has it as a main element. It seems once again I'm finding myself being more into it than I thought I would be with Ripples. It's surprisingly interesting at moments with all the little teases it gives you.

Now here's where another problem starts. While certain moments kinda hooked me in, a lot of Ripples is kinda... boring? In the many hours I played, it really does feel like not much has happened in the grand scheme of things. We get hit with a few interesting moments or teases, and then the game kinda forgets about it to jump around to various girls for lewd scenes.

What REALLY makes this feel boring though is the MC. He's a super simple character without anything really to him. Kinda the standard dumb nice guy I guess, and that's about it. In no way does he come across as truly competent. Rather it feels like he makes it though the more intensive situations by sheer luck. I'll give him being decent at fighting from all the practice with Darci though.

The last real negative for me is that a good amount of the humor (and some random lines of dialogue) makes me cringe man. So much so, that I'm starting to find myself hitting the skip button whenever Darci shows up because she's the main outlet for all the jokes. Unfortunate.

Still, despite my problems with this, I did enjoy this as something a bit different. One of the thing Ripples does a great job at is sex scenes. Top tier animations and I guess what you would call choreography? The scenes are hot to put it plainly.

I did focus a lot more on what I found as problems in my review, but I don't think it's hard to see why a lot of people like this. It is nice to just play a higher quality AVN sometimes. I think your enjoyment of Ripples will depend a lot on what you're really looking for, but definitely a game to checkout should it catch your eye at the least.

In my opinion, "Ripples" stands out as one of the best story-driven games in the AVN list. The impressive renders add to its quality, ensuring a great experience. Trust me, you'll have a good time playing this AVN—whether someone likes it or not, I personally enjoy it and consistently have a positive experience. That's my take on "Ripples." Give it a try when you have the time. I guess that's all for now.

This game is perfect. Renders high quality. Story very interesting. Animations very good idea. Characters are very interesting and their personality give a good + at the history (sorry my english is not very good). Seriously, Ripples is my favorite game.
PS: Skylar, I love you

Well its hard to find a more perfect game where everything seems to be done right, just the fact that you can pick and choose who ever you want to have a sexual relationship with is so damn nice.

The story is very good and have some fun dialogs and scenes, got to love Darci shes proberly my favorit or maybe Skylar...lets call it a tie, its tuff since there is plenty of LIs in the game, the sci-fi is good and not over the top so you can enjoy that part as well, it kinda supprise me it dosent have a harem tag with so many girls wanting to be with MC, and if you can only be with one it wont be an easy pick.

Still waiting to see how they will do virgin scenes and if there is any deflower scenes, they got the talent to make it right but 6 chapters in and there hasent been a chance to be with a virgin, guessing there are atleast 2, Alice and Darci would be my guess but we will see how all of that will play out some day.

Animations looks great, some of the best ive seen for this type of character style.
Music is good to and sets moods for scenes.

Game is in my top 5 and so its one of the best game out there if you ask me.
I will add a bit more to the review as game comes along since there are still things/tags we havent seen yet.

Initially I wasn't much interested in the game seeing there so few scenes in gallery for such a large game. I finally tried it out and Suffice to say I enjoyed it. Custom designed Honey select models, custom designed animations not fully derived from Honey Select base animations, custom created environment, quite a decent yet somewhat predictable and in the future a melancholic story, sensual scenes with focus on foreplay elements along with consensual harcore scenes that doesn't come across as rapey. Overall An amazing game. But I reduced One point because of the game size, like is it because of these custome models or uncompressed textures that this game is so huge even at chapter 6 and we haven't even complete 30% of story. By the end it will reach like 14 to 20 gb game. I hope some sort of efficient compression of textures or images can be done for better Game Size.

Game have nice renders but other aspects, well... Plot is overly simplistic as charachters itself. All charachters personalities are shallow, overused and predictable. MC is not a total simp, but sometimes close to it. Dev all the time breaks the 4 wall through charachters dialogs and stupid remarks, which ruins immersion by reminding player that he plays adult game, dev is not as talented as Stephen Frears for example, to use breaking the 4 wall as toll for even bigger immersion or interesting storytelling, so stop doing it.

All the girls are falling for MC just because and there is nothing more to it. I mean hes not that bad, just average dude and too dimwitted sometimes for the plot sake, but he definetly doesnt present by himself why from the first day girls fall for him one after another just like that. I sincerely want to believe that he is that great guy who capable to make his little harem through his awesomeness, but dev need to show me why hes so great and popular and not just declaring it through girls words that hes handsome, smart etc.

Sometimes he behaves like simp and agrees with girls just because they want him to hear it to like him more. For example, Krystal tells MC about her vulnerability to people thinking that she is slut. But MC reassure her that shes not and people wrong. Dude... she dress like slut, behave and speak like one, people misjudge are totally justified and understandable. If i will wear clown costume, tell jokes and show tricks its only natural that people will think that Im a clown) And then she criticize why if boy fuck a lot of girls he is cool and if girl gets fucked by a lot of boys than she is slut and MC once again agrees with it. Really? Okay) Here some hard to swallow pill for you. For a man to fuck a lot of women he needs to have skills, make a lot of efforts, be presentable, handsome, rich etc, when for a woman, even for ugly one, all is needed is to spread her legs, thats why first is impressive and second is not, its simple as that.

2 stars for renders and because there is a lot shittier games around here.

upd: tried to give game another chance and played further and oh boy) MC lines became so weeb that I cringed to extent where I became uncomfortable to continue reading. His flirting and pickup lines was so bad that it could make even the slutiest slut became as dry as desert, but in this fairytale its worked on girls like a charm of course. Plot feels like wet dream of a virgin. At this moment Im not even sure that dude who writed this, had any action by himself IRL, if only it wasn't written like that on purpose as big brain move to increase patreon supporters by army of weebs)

Animation, women, story and everything is amazing about this game. Well worth playing through. Would give it 4.5 stars only because the developer got a bit lazy with animated orgasm scenes and no anal (yet) but will leave it at 5 just because it's well deserving.

This is a fantastic VN.
Lots of laugh out loud moments.
Great characters.
Good storytelling.
Lots of sexy girls of all types.
You never feel like you're trying to jerk off while solving a 400 word crossword puzzle.
A++

I'm not the biggest fan of the look of the CG models used in this game, but I did enjoy the surprisingly ambitious plot, fun characters, and easygoing dialogue.
A light-hearted and good-natured sex romp.

would have been 5 stars but i can only take so much inane dialogue. so much waffle especially the thoughts in brackets. it goes on and on and on. trim that down by half and it would be so much better. i can start skipping dialogue and skip loads before getting to the point. i dont want to go straight to the porn but i want to get to the point a lot more quicker. doubt Jestur will take this constructive advice on board. maybe do a waffle free version?

Story is amazing, characters are almost all incredibly lovable, banter is fuckin hilarious, and so many moments will pull at your heartsrings. ive only recently gotten into VNs. but this is hands down the best Ive ever read. the animations and sex scenes are actually amazing themselves, but this story will have you so engrossed you wont even have time to pull out the lube

finished it + love it , the jokes are funny and the story is not boring , also the animation is good , if the animation would be more detailed it will be in another level , but so far I very much like it , keep up the good work and thank you .

Among the best of the best in the adult visual novel world. Excellent animations and renders, extremely engaging story and cast of characters, and an overall level of polish and quality that starts high and keeps improving. Ripples is a must-play, and you'll be very glad you did.

First review of version: 0.5 on Aug. 20. 2023. Review updated to 0.7 on Sep. 02. 2024

Pros:
- Good looking animated sequences used for character introductions, outfit show-offs, episode beginnings, etc. Kinda feels like watching episodes of a tv show.
- Darci’s swearing is highly amusing and she’s a fresh breath in terms of avn heroines.
- Very diverse characters in terms of personalities. Less so regarding clothing style and body types.
- It’s very exciting to speculate what changes you may or may not have caused in the present, due to your actions in the past
- Using Grisaia as the catalyst for starting a relationship with Jessica, interesting choice and one of several good examples of a cultural references being done right in Ripples.
- Shit-ninja….enough said.
- Very natural sounding dialogue.
- Soundtrack proved more diverse than expected. Only a few loops were a bit repetitive.
- Characters remain themselves during h-scenes, rather than turning into the same inexperienced, yet very experienced generic female porn star.
- H-animations are smooth and the highly diverse positions seen are well set up.
- Some of the best social chemistry I have seen in the AVN sphere.

Mehs and hit/miss:
- MC’s face hidden due to ugly?
- I suppose it is a little unfortunate how all the heroines so far uses the same skin texture. They have been morphed into their individual and somewhat unique body shapes but look at the navel and you will realize it is the exact same. The same might apply for nipples/areola which I guess is an inherent weakness of the HS engine.

Cons:
- Potentially ridiculing of cucks or merely free-spirited males/husbands. Not too bad so far and it was used mostly for comedic effect and not in order to emphasize MC’s alpha-ness like certain other AVN’s have done.
- Progression and development of story and relationships are too fast paced. Especially the relationships in the present (2019). Partly improved upon by time-skips happening in the latter updates.

0.7 New remarks.
Intro: So, having just completed the 0.7 content on a fresh playthrough I have gotten a few new remarks to write out, as well as a couple that I left out when I wrote the first edition review for 0.5. It has also become clear to me that a rose-tinted glasses effect was in play during my first playthrough. Most of my new remarks are Cons or Meh moments, but there’s a few new pros as well. That being said, Ripples retains a solid 5-star rating by F95 standards. In my personal review rating document, I have downgraded it from A+ to A and 8.8 to 8.5.

New pros:
- Animation quality has kept rising.
- The second H-scene.
- The rescue mission represented a significant change in tone towards something darker. I personally liked it. Felt as if venturing out in the deep end of a pool, after having stayed in the shallow kid area for a while. But the deep end was always there, so to speak. I always thought there were hints of something more serious lurking under the surface.
- Nice melee fight choreography, not just the animations, but the actual fighting moves and reactions.
New Mehs:
- I didn’t really care much for the first H-scene in 0.7. Felt too porny for me.
- I would like to see more male characters in neutral or positive roles.
- Too much reliance on reading the inner thoughts of people, especially the LI’s. Lots of telling, little showing. It can get very In-your-face from time to time.
- 0.7 felt perhaps a little short in terms of main story progression. I get that much dev time went towards the numerous and still improving animations. And character development was fairly on point too. Still, thought it worth mentioning.
- The bad guys of the update felt a lot like cartoon villains who decided to be really damn edgy. A bit overdone.
New Cons:
- During this second run I increasingly felt that LI’s are simply a little to fast and eager about throwing themselves at MC. The way everything regarding the LI's seems to be lined up well in advance for MC is a little too strong. Much is given, little is earned.
- Overemphasis on MC’s wang. The size of the model itself isn’t actually that extreme relative to most other AVN's. But i definitely got tired of just how frequent the size becomes the focal point of any dialogue in the lead up to the H scenes. Too much wish fulfilment and ego strocking here.
- This started with the earlier versions, and I didn’t mention it in the original review. I am getting increasingly worried about how the harem shenanigans will be handled once things starts getting “official”. I fear a scenario where the less promiscuous LI’s will just shrug their shoulders and go “Hmmm, well, it’s okay because it's you MC”.

Great story, the animation style gets me, sometimes I get so invested in the story that I forget what this is. Don't miss out and try it, good work to dev. The scenes are great and the build up has me wanting t continue even if I feel like I shouldn't

This game is amazing.
The plot, dialogue, humor, and characters feel like they came out of pages of some novel.
I wonder whether the dev hired a writer for this? I was pleasantly surprised to see such a quality in something that was supposed to be "another porn game".

This game objectifies the girls/women so much....

Which is great! 5/5

Jokes aside, the story is really good.
Also normally Honey select models are meh, but this dev really has a unique way of going about things that makes them very interesting and varied. It's not your typical game with this style where the girls are all shiny and all look the same. Some are serious hotties, like Skylar.

I'd love to see a game from this dev with DAZ girls or a more diverse looking girl-base

But back on topic:
Story: Great
Girls: Great!
Fapability rating: GREAT!

Engaging plot and characters you can't help but want to explore more with.
Just d/l and play it if you like Ren'Py adult VN's. It's a must play.
Good job Dev!